EARLESS SEALS. 139 



area. The length of the male is usually from 5 to 5| feet, but may, it is 

 said, be as much as 6 feet. The female has generally much the same colora- 

 tion as the male when adult, but the black markings are less distinct, and may be 

 wanting. The full coloration is not obtained till the fifth year, and so different is 

 the appearance of the animal at different stages of its growth that the Greenlanders 

 have distinct names for it according to age. The white or yellowish white woolly 

 fur of the young is not changed for the hairy coat till several weeks after birth. 

 The Greenland seal, which can at most be regarded only as a very occasional 

 visitant to the British Isles, is essentially a northern species, ranging in the 

 Atlantic from Newfoundland and the North Sea to the Arctic regions, and 

 also occurring in the North Pacific. 



The migratory habits of this species have been already alluded 



to at sufficient length ; the most noted breeding-stations are New- 

 foundland and the vicinity of Jan-Mayen, at which localities these animals may be 

 seen in enormous herds in the spring ; but where they pass the remainder of the 

 season is not ascertained. In Greenland these seals visit the coasts both in the 

 autumn and in the spring ; and it may be some of these herds that pass westwards 

 to Jan-Mayen. During their migrations the seals keep close to the coasts, and 

 frequently enter the bays and estuaries ; but when settled at their breeding-resorts 

 they prefer exposed ice-floes in the open sea, never resorting to the shores, and being 

 seldom met with on the firm ice. Everywhere the Greenland seal is in the habit 

 of assembling in immense herds ; and it is so abundant that its numbers probably 

 exceed those of all the other species put together. In consequence of this abund- 

 ance, it is this species which forms the main basis of the sealing trade of the 

 northern seas. Unlike the bearded and ringed seals, the Greenland seal never 

 forms a breathing-hole in the ice ; and this is doubtless the reason that it frequents 

 the ice-floes rather than the continuous stretches of unbroken ice. Off the coast 

 of Newfoundland the young are born in the early part of March, but in the Jan- 

 Mayen district not until the end of that month. When assembled in their count- 

 less herds on the ice-floes during the breeding-season, it is stated that their cry 

 may be heard at a distance of several miles, more especially if the ear be applied to 

 the ice. As an indication of the enormous numbers in which these seals once 

 existed, it may be mentioned that during the year 1866 a single steamer obtained 

 22,000 seals in nine days ; and it was not uncommon for a ship's crew to kill from 

 500 to 800 adults and 2000 young ones in a day. In Greenland the annual catch 

 was estimated at 33,000, while that in Newfoundland used to exceed 500,000, and 

 in the Jan-Mayen seas the total number killed each year was fully 30,000. 



Of the remaining members of the genus Phoca our notice must 



be very brief. It has been already mentioned how the ringed seal (P. 

 // ispida) may be distinguished at all ages from the two preceding species, and refer- 

 ence has likewise been made to its adult coloration. It may be added that the ringed 

 seal differs from the common seal by its more slender form, longer limbs and tail, 

 narrower head, and more pointed nose. The ringed seal is an inhabitant of the 

 Arctic and North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, occasionally visiting the British 

 Islands ; but it may be regarded as pre-eminently boreal, its true home being the 

 icy Arctic seas. Its favourite resorts are stated to be sheltered bays and fjords, 



